Utilitas Constantiniana.

»Utilitas Constantiniana. Private Law Legislation at the Beginning of the Fourth Century«

The legislative work of Constantine the Great in the area of private law has the repute of breaking with the tradition of classical Roman law continued up to Diocletian. The comparison of the legislation of both emperors suffers, though, from the asymmetry of the transmission, because only regular laws with selective innovations by Constantine have been preserved. Nevertheless, one can identify overarching traits: on the one hand, the effort to realise the intention behind legal transactions as part of a dogmatically consistent further development of the law, on the other hand, the opposing striving for legal certainty as the dominant element among the politically motivated decisions.